OREANDA-NEWS. January 11, 2010. The Belarusian government in 2010 will continue its efforts to restrict imports and promote import substitution, Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov said during a session of the Council of Ministers.

“We have specific programs for each region. We will continue setting limits on the use of foreign exchange for purchasing imports. This practice will continue in 2010,” Kobyakov said.

He also said the government would keep working on “optimizing” imports by independent organizations.

“The organizations subordinate to local administrations have improved their trade balance by USD 29 million, and organizations without subordination, which we control via macroeconomic parameters, showed an improvement by USD 3.169 billion. The main increase in the deficit – by USD 4.2 billion – was through the organizations subordinate to the government that we control most of all,” he said.

Belarus’ commodity trade came to a deficit of USD 5.732 billion in January-October 2009, which compares to a deficit of USD 4.957 billion in the same period of 2008.